An independent journal about the Gannett Co. and the news industry's digital transition

Friday, May 15, 2009

Just In | St. Cloud confirms; 12th to close press

(Updated at 12:17 p.m.) The number of Gannett presses headed for the junkyard now totals 12, a sharp-eyed reader says, pointing to a site I'd missed in my previous tally: The News Leader of Staunton, Va.

From an earlier version of this post: Confirming speculation, St. Cloud Times Publisher Bill Albrecht sought to reassure the Minnesota community that only production is shifting to Gannett Offset, 51 miles away in suburban Minneapolis.

"I want make (to) sure everyone understands that Times Media and the St. Cloud Times are not moving to Maple Grove,'' the paper quotes Albrecht saying, in a new story online. "Our printed products are going to be produced at a Gannett location in Maple Grove. We will maintain our operation in St. Cloud with roughly 170 employees.”

32 comments:

Well, I imagine they can transmit the content electronically to the press, but they've still got a least an hour further drive to get the paper back to St. Cloud. So forget about any news happening after 9pm or so?

That's just insane to say a move out of town won't affect quality. Of course it will - in delivery times, reproduction errors since no one will be able to physically check over the paper anymore, and never mind FIXING an error if they find one! Do you know how many mistakes the press people tend to find in the newspaper, then alert the newsrooms about? Does this publisher really believe the BS he has spewed?

It makes sense for Lansing (which also prints Battle Creek), and Port Huron to print in Detroit. They have six state of the art presses in Sterling Heights and with the continued drop in circulation of the News and Free Press, there is more than enough press capacity to print all the Michigan papers and USA Today with some slight deadline modifications. Don't tell me that Gannett is not thinking about it.

It makes total sense that they would move Lansing printing ops to Detroit. Most advertising is designed overseas, everything else is electronic, and the paper keeps getting thinner and thinner - add to that, Port Huron TH is actually closer to Detroit than Lansing, it's just a no-brainer. The cost of keeping ops in Lansing has got to be astronomical in comparison to buying/hiring a few trucks to transport these reduced circ, thin little flyers to and fro.If they don't move it, I'll eat my words with a fork and spoon.

Mr Publisher/ President maybe if your ego would have not got in the way in the beginning you would not be in the train rec you are now. Maybe just once listen to your staff. It is obvious you have gotten rid of all the good ones and kept who I work with Today.You are not at all good at what you do. How can we have more sales staff assistants now and we are making less then we did 5 years ago with less. Do you ever walk around and see what employee's are doing. Maybe come out of hiding in your office and look. This is why the press is gone is you have no control over the staff and the manager are all scared of you and they all lie to you. Wake up.

I find this all very funny that it was just a few years ago that Gannett was on a press spending spree purchasing new presses in Detroit, Louisville, Honolulu, Indy, etc. They spent $177 million in Detroit alone.

GCI dismantled the press there and production was shifted to Westchester. After the press was dismantled, GCI found out Morristown would lose all of its lucrative legal ads because of a state law that requires Jersey newspapers be printed in Jersey.

GCI quickly found a contractor to print Morristown. But that contract, negotiated at the last-minute, is costing GCI much more than it would've cost had it done its homework and kept the press and crew in Morristown.

The cost-savings of shifting to Westchester and trucking the paper to Morristown was minimal at best once GCI gave up all of Morristown's commercial printing ops. To have given up that revenue and now being forced to pay more for a non-GCI site to print Morristown has to have them seething at corporate.

This is the classic GCI consolidation story. Looking before leaping, and letting visions of potential dollars saved blind the reality of the situation. Each of these press shutterings means less commercial printing revenue, earlier deadlines that further diminish the value of the core print product, and of course the human toll of employees lost. ... Not that that matters anymore.

Why don't they just shut down ALL the presses except one somewhere in the center of the USA?Like, in Memphis.Then they could print ALL the papers there, and move them on FedEx, to be delivered by 10:30 am the next morning?

These press shutdowns will make it harder to sell those papers when the day comes. Who's going to buy those mothballed presses, some paper in Bolivia? Somalia, maybe? It's not those newspapers fault that they can't support themselves while also subsidizing Dumbow's salary and all the other brass, corporate jets, golf tournaments and donations to the alma mater. Sell now!

The guys and gals in the press department at the St Cloud Times had in most cases 10 to 30 years with the company. They placed their blood sweat and tears into this paper. It ran for many years making a great profit. All new kodak plate machine were installed approximately two years ago. The publisher and Ceo Dubow started what about seven to 8 years ago and guess what when they started this was a strong paper. A money maker. In fact they had purchased two other very strong shoppers and both of them are all most gone to. So tell me 10 to 30 years on a press and many years of success. My question is is it the employees, the or the two new guyss who have taken down this good company. I have watched as old and new sales staff along with current circulation staff will sit at a little local club at 3;30 pm have some beers and be home by five. Is this why my friends on the staff are gone. This is sad and those sales staff are still in the bar drinking. It is a sad day.

Realistically this move to consolide operations comes 5 years too late.St. Cloud has a 40 year old POS Harris 1650 that because of neglect and financial restraints ie Gannets wringing every dime out of its smaller properties had been literally run into the ground. In the 1990s when the 25" web reduction was all the rage the production manager at the time made the decision to do just the bare minimum read cheapest, way to make 25" workable without realizing the full cost benefits of a total conversion. He gets an atta boy for doing the cheapest conversion in the corporation, a ring, a promotion and down the road he goes. The next boy wonder discovers he can complete the conversion and make the ROI for the Creo plate system that was installed in 2003. He also convinces the powers to be to sink a million bucks into the press in 2004 when 45 minutes down the road is a brand new state of the art press that could produce the Times' 25k copies in about an hour. Even if no one saw the death spiral on the horizon this move made economic sense 5 years ago before a couple million dollars was sent circling the bowl. I’m sure everyone can relate similar decisions where the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing but it isn’t going to change the fact that no matter what time the sales staff knocks off for a beer papers like St. Cloud will not be here in 5 years.

The guys and gals in the press department at the St Cloud Times had in most cases 10 to 30 years with the company. They placed their blood sweat and tears into this paper.....__________________________________

First off buddy you need to go back to 4th grade and learn how to put together a coherent sentence. Secondly, I think you need to check yourself before you go pointing fingers at a sales staff and a circulation staff. They are on the front lines everyday dealing with this unhealthy economy trying to figure out how to squeeze more money out of the market and mom and pop shops who are already hitting rock bottom. I’m assuming you aren’t on the Sales or Circulation team so you have no idea the stress it causes. Especially when management is ran by a bunch of Females. No offense but a little testosterone in management can be a good thing and god knows the big guy is lacking in that department. So before you go pointing fingers at different departments take a look from a business perspective. Loyalty falls by the wayside when a company is falling as fast as the Times. They are going to first cut the most expendable positions, which I’m assuming is where your friend worked. Being there for 1 yr or 30 yrs makes no difference when the economy is in a depression. You, and the rest of Americans with jobs, should just thank the stars you still receive a pay check.

Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."